Sunday Leftovers (6/22/08)

It is not unusual for me to leave out things from a sermon that I had originally intended to say.

It is unusual that I intentionally leave out as much as I did Sunday. I not only left out a complete point, accounting for a full page of notes (out of about 3-1/2 pages total), but left out several other comments and thoughts along the way.

Most of what was left unsaid related to the disciples.

The passage not only told the story of Christ in the Garden, but it also told the story of the disciples in the Garden. Though experiencing the same events, Christ and the disciples processed those events so very differently. Since my attention Sunday was on Christ as He prepared to endure the wrath of God, I didn’t want our attention to be distracted from Him. But there is much to glean from the disciples’ experience in the Garden as well.

In response to the distress, trouble and grief He experienced over the looming prospect of becoming the bearer of sin on the cross, Christ prayed.

In response to the sorrow they experienced over the prospect of the crucifixion of Christ, the disciples slept.

What accounts for the different response (apart from the obvious answer of the deity of Christ and the humanity of the disciples)?

The problem for the disciples was not the experience of the emotion of sorrow. While Jesus had told them much about the days and weeks ahead, He had not told them all. Questions had to remain.

Additionally, Christ Himself experienced grief prior to the cross — but without sin. The difference between Jesus and the disciples was the beliefs and desires that motivated the emotions.

Christ was “anxious” because it was unthinkable that the Holy One could take on the burden of sin — how could Jesus Christ as a member of the Trinity be so closely united to sin, thereby necessitating such vast distance from the Father, who would forsake Him? This drove His request of the Father — “remove this cup from Me…”

The disciples were sorrowful. None of the gospel writers says explicitly why they were sorrowful, but this much we know — their sorrow did not glorify God and their sorrow was not a holy grief. I can say that because of the product and source of their sorrow. Their sorrow —

• led them to spiritual apathy. Christ’s sorrow produced fellowship with the Father. Christ used the emotions of distress, trouble, and grief righteously, without sin, and to the glory of God. In contrast to Him, it could be said that not only were the disciples apathetic, they were downright disobedient. When Jesus said three times, “watch and pray” — and then exemplified for them what He was calling them to do — and they chose not to pray and chose to sleep instead, that’s disobedience. He told them to pray on a night when they had to understand that something incredibly unusual was taking place. And still they slept. Their sorrow was understandable. So would have been fear, anxiety, anger, and confusion. Powerful — even overwhelming — emotions may be understandable, but they should still always produce righteous responses.
• was the consequence of their spiritual weakness. Jesus said, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The word weak refers to that which is sickly, incapable and impotent. This was an attribute of humanity due to fallenness that was unknown to Christ. He knew the willingness of spirit; He knew nothing of inability to do righteousness. In contrast, the disciples knew nothing of an ability to always do righteousness. Despite the work of Christ to conquer sin, still the disciples were left with remaining, indwelling sin, and so are we. One temptation is to say, “I’m free from sin…” But none of the disciples was saying that, and frankly most believers seeking to walk with the Lord don’t say that either. More often the refrain is what the disciples evidence that night — “I can’t be free from this emotion/sin/weakness…I quit.” Christ warned them about their weakness, but instead of seeking His help or wisdom, or following His command and example to pray, they quit

The problem for the disciples was not the emotion of grief that they were experiencing. Christ knew grief on that same night as well. The failure for the disciples came when they followed the grief to self-absorption instead of being led by the grief to God-dependence in prayer. They struggled spiritually because they were inattentive to watching over the condition of their souls and they failed to pray when prayer was the only thing to do